Appeals Court Orders U.S.
To Refund Harbor-Use Taxes

WASHINGTON -- An appeals court here ruled the U.S. must refund hundreds of millions of dollars it collected in harbor-maintenance taxes from about 3,500 companies that export products by ship.

The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit followed a March 1998 Supreme Court ruling that the government must return an estimated $750 million in harbor taxes collected by the U.S. Customs Service between 1993 and 1998....